Can´t I have a day off already!! (the "12k downhill walk")

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December 2nd 2006

Published: December 2nd 2006

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Stacey and Keith

room with a view

a very small room mind

We are in Huaraz region of Peru and wow, what a change from Guatemala! We have been amazed at how nice people are here, even coming out of their homes to wait for a bus with us, and even, on occasion, having students come up and want a picture with us...freak show anybody?!? They specifically asked for a photo with the gringos, which we had taken but absolutely no doubts allowed said we were from England, not that that makes much difference here, everybody is so welcoming.

We have done some treking, but with the majority just over 4000m, us poor lowland Brits are finding it somewhat hard to breath...it´s taken us an entire week to fully aclimatize so we can even walk along beside a lake at 4250m and not feel out of breath.

We started with a small day trek from a small village called Llupa with the intention to walk up to Lake Churup...if we ever make it there we will let you know, as we only got about halfway and decided it was time to head back on down.

Our wedding anniversary was on Tuesday, so we decided to get away from everyone (no

funky tree and blue lake

surprise to those of you who know us) and headed on up to Laguna Peron. This was amazing with fantastic views and only 3 people in a group walking past us the entire day. We camped up there, but will let the piccies do the talking.

We were told by everybody the walk down to the town of Peron was only 12km downhill.....oh how they lied!! The last bus from Peron left at 2pm heading for Caraz, and so we set off early with the intention of taking it slowly and taking loads of piccies......though we didnt have time for that! We walked for 5 hours, pretty much running downhill and taking all the shortcuts we could find trying to make it there on time. A bus did go past us going down, though with about 30 schoolkids in and on the roof of a small van, we decided to keep on a rollin on down... we think in the end we walked about 20km, with our heeeuge bags (damn those extra shoes!) and arrived at the bus stop with a couple of minutes to spare...literally! The town of Peron was very welcoming, with people coming out of their

PIramide

Keith says he wants to climb it now...cos it´s there I suppose...though it still looks like too much hard work

houses and following us down the road, and even waiting for the bus with us and pretty much choking with laughter when we said "12km from the Lake!", erm nope, even with taking all the short cuts its 16km.....we knew that, our legs were telling us! Still, what an anniversary!

From there, a lazy day was next before heading to Llaganuco. The lakes there are very beautiful, and at about 3800m. We cheated and got a bus to drop us off at the top of the second lake so we could stroll along them.

We are now back in Huaraz, trying to decide between mountain bike riding, (downhill of course) or climbing for Keith (hardnut) or rafting...eeks, decisions decisions and we will let you know as soon as I have feeling back in my legs and my back! hot springs here we come!

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